In these studies for the painting Metamorphosis, the water’s abstract patterns turn a woman’s face into a puzzle-shaped mask. In the top image, the face is partly hidden, but it is unclear what surrounding substance creates this obliterating effect. The middle image shows a delicately-shaded face momentarily protruding from a mass of net-like ripples. The bottom image returns to a flat mask effect, using a hard shadow to cut the face in half. Only the colour blue suggests water.

In the novel that influenced Robert’s painting, Elizabeth Smart writes how she “craves violence for expression, but can find none. There is no end. The drowning never ceases. The water submerges and blends, but I am not dead. O I am not dead. I am under the sea. The entire sea is on top of me.” (By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, p. 118-119) The lover feels like she is perpetually drowning. Robert has placed similar quotes from the novel in the margins around his images: “He weeps consolation on my mouth. He kisses the circle on top of the water beneath which I lie drowned.” The quote concludes: “Amore. Amore. Amore.” The woman is drowning in love. Through psychological projection, the water becomes symbolic of a state of mind, the unconscious and its powerful effects on human behavior.